Concerned by the surprising rise in voter turnout in the Sarawak polls from 52 percent at 4pm to 70 percent at midnight, activist Maria Chin Abdullah has urged the Election Commission (EC) to look into the matter.

The Bersih and election watchdog Pemantau leader said the EC had to respond to this.

“There is a big discrepancy here - it was not (just) a five to six percent jump,” she pointed out.

In Malaysiakini’s live coverage of polling day yesterday, the EC, it was noted that the EC, which had consistently announced the turnout rate throughout the day, was uncharacteristically silent about the tally after 4pm.

Past midnight, the EC announced that the overall voter turnout was 70.01 percent.

According to a report in the The Star, EC chief Mohd Hashim Abdullah said the overall voter turnout had included early and absentee voters who cast their ballots on May 3.

Hashim, however, had reportedly declined to reveal the exact turnout for yesterday’s polling day.

Based on the EC’s announcement, the 11th Sarawak state election saw 70.01 percent of the 1,109,795 eligible voters exercising their democratic rights.

The election saw BN winning by a landslide, taking 72 seats in the 82-seat state assembly while DAP captured seven seats and PKR, three.

Malaysiakini has contacted the Election Commission for comment.

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